From Gun Owners of America . . .
Forty-eight Senators are demanding in a letter that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) withdraw its Proposed Rule to ban stabilizing pistol braces — a move that the Congressional Research Service reported could affect roughly 40,000,000 firearms and turn millions of gun owners into felons.
The letter states, “ATF seems to believe that re-characterizing millions of pistols as SBRs is no big deal because the agency kindly offers gun owners what it deems to be plenty of means of complying. … Missing from ATF’s reasoning, of course, is that, even in its own very conservative estimate, ATF requires many months to process the registration forms for SBRs. Thus, gun owners will have to give up the use of their firearms for months while waiting for ATF to process their registration forms and tax payments.”
The letter concludes, “[The Proposed Rule] is plain wrong. [It] is worse than merely abdicating your responsibility to protect Americans from criminals; you’re threatening to turn law-abiding Americans into criminals by imposing the largest executive branch-initiated gun registration and confiscation program in American history. We urge you to turn back. Correct this mistake and withdraw the proposed rule.”
Aidan Johnston, Director of Federal Affairs for GOA, commented, “President Biden’s call for gun control is clearly out of touch with average Americans. He is trying to circumvent Congress to regulate gun parts, prepare a gun registry, and ban roughly 40,000,000 pistols. However, over half of the localities in the United States, including a dozen states, have declared themselves ‘Sanctuaries’ for the Second Amendment. Now it’s up to Second Amendment Sanctuaries to say ‘NO!’ to ATF’s new gun control. Gun owners around the country are grateful for such widespread support from the Senate in urging the ATF to withdraw its pistol ban.”
The letter can be read in full here.
[ED: The two Republican senators who didn’t sign onto the letter were Rob Portman of Ohio and Susan Collins of Maine.]